Katha Rookson
977765 Scouts 1 term, age 22
Hostile Environment-2, Grav-1, Trader-1, Comms-1, Survey-1, Teacher-1, Trader-1, Gravatics-1
Growing up off the hostile world of Boughene, Katha learned early on the dangers of it's methane atmosphere, and using the station's grav shuttles learned to get to and from the station. Her attempt to get into the station's only college failed. Wanting off the station, she somehow ended up in the Scouts, in even smaller ships. She lasted all of a single term, the Scouts feeling she was not quite the fit they wanted. Despite that, she still has a love of the ISS and exploring new worlds and meeting new people.
She is patient with others, and listens well. Observant about cultures, Katha is quick to be able to evaluate goods in the context of that world, and enjoys helping others learn new things as she loves to learn new things. She does have a bit of hostility to college graduates, never having been able to get in herself. Out in the universe on her own, she is trying to figure out the next chapter of her young life.
Katha prefers comfortable clothes when on her ship
Falling on a Saturday and having a bit more time, we'll see if I can muddle through the T5 character generation process. And unfortunately she only lasted a single term, failing the intelligence roll for re-enlistment. It was a shorter process than expected but I think I am finally figuring out the mechanics a bit.
Initial stats, with the genetics (1st die) in parenthesis
- Strength: 7 (2)
- Dexterity: 7 (1)
- Endurance: 7 (2)
- Intelligence: 7 (3)
- Education: 5
- Social: 5
- gender 6, female
And that was a series of 7s which was really boring. So nothing outstanding for this character in terms of stats, nothing to help figure out just who she is. Other than her education and social status are below average. Perhaps the birthworld will give us some info. A d66 table is give, and a 1,2 gives us Boughene, a fluid, non-industrial world.
- Hostile Environment-1
- Driver-1 (Driver (Grav-1)
Hostile environment is a new skill for me, and gives her the ability to recognize and better prepare for hostile environmental issues. Bad news is the example skill check is less then her education, which as noted is not good. So we would need to boost her education to make that hostile environment useful other than as chrome for the character. There was a slim chance, 2 on 2d6, that the character was born in space. A 4 means that did not happen (and I noticed this after reading through the birthworld options).
Note that the dice mechanics are a dice pool - the difficulty is tied to the number of dice and you have to roll under. The example given for hostile environment is: Difficult (3D) < Edu + Hostile. So if something domes up, she would need to roll 6 or less on 3d6. So on the one hand, I actually like the idea of more dice = more difficult. On the other hand, it is just not Traveller for me. Note that by the end of her single term, she picked up both another Hostile Environment skill and a +1 on her education. So she has to roll 3D vs 6 + 2, or 8. So still not quite a 50/50 chance but a lot better than 3d vs 6 per her original generation!
So, looking over the education section, Katha really only has college as an option: the pre-requisites for any of the higher education are all education 5+: college at 5+ is her only option as the more prestigious schools require an even higher basic education to apply to. Now, there is an option to get the GED equivalent if your education is 4 or less, just roll 2d6 under your intelligence and get an instant education of 5. So that is also a nice touch. So Katha applies to the Winsanch College, and fails the roll of getting in: 2d6 vs intelligence, and a 9. Trying for a waiver, meaning I need to roll a 5 or less against my social ranking. Katha has no strings to pull. Rolling an 8, and there is no college for young Katha. So off to find a career, perhaps angry that she never got to go to college.
T5 presents 13 careers: it bridges the classic Book 1 and Supplement 4 careers. While some are pretty safe (hard to die as a craftsman, but you can create a masterpiece), others vary in lethality. Though T5 does not have the kill your character in generation except as an option. Looking over the careers, with her stats Katha has a 50/50 chance of most of the careers. Seeing how Boughene has a corrosive atmosphere, she was raised on the station according to the Wiki article, she may want to explore other worlds. So I can see Scouts, Spacer or Soldier to get out of this system. 1 die roll of 1 for a d3 roll and Scouts it is. To get in I have to roll 2d6 against any 1 of my physical stats. They are all 7 so it makes no difference. Interestingly, there is a retry roll should I fail against my education. So it is even less likely. Rolling a 7, Katha gets into the Imperial Scout Service!
Term 1 (18-22)
Risk and Reward. All 4 characteristics Katha uses for this roll are 7. I'll just go through them sequentially. Now we can do the same mechanic as per classic Book 5 and make an adjustment on the risk roll that has the opposite affect on the reward roll. Exactly the same as the survival and decoration rolls I finally figured out. Being exactly a 50/50 chance, I'll not use any mods for either for at least this term. So, using strength of 7:
- Risk roll: 6 (< 7 so nothing happened)
- Reward roll: 9 ( >7 so nothing good happened either)
Scouts have no ranks, so looking at the Scout table, and as Katha did the risk/reward process and so is an explorer this term, gets 8 rolls. We'll just go sequentially through the tables, skipping the Academic table as she did not go to college, and the courier table as she was exploration.
- Personal: 1 = strength +1; UPP 877755
- Exploration: 3 = Hostile Environment-2
- Business: 3: Trader-1
- Vocation: 6 = Comms-1
- Avocation: 1 trade (okay, no idea where those are listed, we'll defer figuring that out. And they are listed at the end of the skills chapter): Gravatics-1
- Personal: 1 = +1 strength again! UPP 977755
- Exploration: 1 = Survey-1
- Business: 4 = Teacher-1
So Katha's 1st term out among the stars she had to learn to trade with various others for resupplying on the fly, increased her hostile environment skill so must have visited some hostile worlds, learned the ins and outs of using the comm equipment and how to survey new worlds, and started getting buffed up. Too bad we picked strength as this term's controlling characteristic. And we can't use that until we cycle through the others. We also need to roll a 7 or less (intelligence) to continue in the Scouts, and rolling an 8, she is mustered out after a single term! She also picked up gravatics, learning to work on the air/raft that she flies about in on occasion still.
Mustering out
Having a single roll, I'll use the benefits table - perhaps she picked up some forbidden knowledge! With no fame from discovering anything, there are no DMs. A roll of 5 means is C5 +1, or education. So we've had a bit of education.
- Benefit: 5 = +1 education, UPP 977765
Okay, I think I am getting better at generating T5 characters. I'll do another for the final character challenge tomorrow, and hopefully will get better stats and something a bit more complicated. The fame stuff has had some serious questions over on COTI and I'd like to see how that plays out.
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